In the normal play of competitive bridge, in clubs and tournaments, the players typically use “bidding boxes” (see FIGS. 10 and 11) with bidding cards having large, printed bids on them. For example, there is one card for each of the seven possible bids in each of four suits, and in no-trump. There normally are additional bidding cards showing “double” (“X”), “redouble” (“XX”), “ALERT” or “STOP”. Those bidding cards are used to make bids during the game by laying the bidding cards on the table, in front of the bidding player. When bidding is complete, the bidding cards are returned to the bidding boxes and play proceeds.
In pairs games, each pair of players or team is given a team number, e.g., N-S 14 or E-W 9 (indicating pair No. 14, sitting North-South, and pair No. 9, sitting East-West). When the game has been played, the score, the “board” number (the number assigned to the cards played, which are held in a holder called a “board”, See FIG. 9) and team number information is written on a paper score sheet.
FIG. 9 shows a typical prior art card-holder or “board” 100, in common use in playing duplicate bridge. The board 100 has a rectangular body 102, usually made of metal, forming a shallow tray with four card-holding compartments, including two end compartments 102 and 104, and two side compartments 106 and 108. Each compartment has a U-shaped cut-out area 103, 105, or 109 in the bottom wall. The cut-out area for the compartment 106 is hidden. The cut-outs allow access of a person's thumb or other finger to the under-surface of a group of playing cards, such as the group 111 contained in each of the compartments in order to remove the cards.
Each of the compartments has a depth or height just sufficient to snugly receive thirteen cards, one bridge hand, with the end compartments 102 and 104 being relatively wide to receive the cards sideways, and the side compartments being relatively narrow to receive the cards end-wise.
The cards 111 form one bridge hand partially withdrawn from the compartment 106. The other compartments are empty.
As it is well known, the board 100 is used by first aligning the board with the arrow 107 pointing towards the player sitting in the North seat, and each of the four players at a table removing the one of the hands from one of the compartments corresponding to his or her seat (N, S, E or W). Then bidding proceeds until either a contract has been reached or the hand has been “passed-out” by no-one bidding. If a contract was reached, the hand is played, with the players arraying the cards they have played along the edge of the card table in front of them, being sure not to mix the cards with those played by others, and then after the completion of play, returning the cards to the same compartments from which they came. Each board then is passed to another table to be played by other players. In “duplicate” bridge, this is repeated until all, or almost all players in the game have played each of 20 to 30 boards used in a typical game.
The board 100, or a stack of 2 to 5 boards, often sits in the middle of the card table during play. The legends 110, 112, 114, 116, 118 on the board being played thus are visible to remind the players of who is the dealer, which pair of players is “vulnerable”, the number of the board, etc.
In determining the standings of the players in a “duplicate” bridge game, the score of each pair on each board is compared with the score of all other pairs which played the board in the same direction. (That is, the scores of players who sat E-W are compared with the scores of other players who sat E-W; and the scores of N-S players similarly are compared with those of other N-S players). The pair achieving the best score on a given board is awarded a certain number of victory points, and lower scores on the board are given smaller numbers of victory points. The total number of victory points for each pair is determined, and the pair with the largest total is ranked first, and pairs with lower totals are ranked in descending order.
At the end of the game, Master points are awarded to the leading players in an amount determined by the rules of Bridge, and usually vary from game to game.
As it was noted briefly above, FIG. 9 shows several permanent markings on the body 102 of the board 100.
First, the number of the board (“24”, in this case) is marked in large numbers at 110.
Another marking 112 indicates which player is to receive the cards in each of the compartments by the “N”, “S”, “E” and “W” markings. The board 100 is placed on the card table, in the center with the arrow 107 pointing towards the north player so as to place each of the four hands facing the player who is to play it.
A further marking 114 shows which player is deemed to be the “dealer”. This is needed because the cards normally are not actually dealt to start play of the board. The marking in FIG. 9 indicates that West is the dealer, and thus starts the bidding.
Finally, vulnerability or lack of it is determined by markings such as 116 and 118 on the board. The markings indicates that the N-S pair is vulnerable, but the E-W pair is not.
Although the markings on the board sometimes are permanent, in some boards they can be changed.
FIGS. 10 and 11 show a typical bidding box 120 which is now in use and which it is one object of the invention to replace.
The bidding box 120 includes a body, usually made of molded plastic, having two receptacles 124 and 126. Receptacle 126 holds an array 128 of bidding cards, and the receptacle 124 holds a group 130 of bidding function cards such as one marked “PASS”; others marked “X” or “XX” for doubling or re-doubling a bid; one marked “S” for “STOP”, for use in warning of jump bids, and “ALERT” (not shown) for use in alerting opponents to the use of unusual bidding conventions.
FIG. 11 is an enlarged view of the upper portions of some of the bidding cards 128. There is a separate card for each of the 35 different bids that can be made, from 1 to 7 clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades or no-trump.
The first card 132 is at the rear of the array 128 and is marked with a 1 club symbol in the upper right-hand corner, and the other cards marked with 1-bids are cut at the top so as to expose the markings of the other cards in the same row when the cards are stacked one in front of the next. The next five cards in the row of two-bids, which is below the first row, are shorter than the cards bearing one-bids, and are cut at the top to expose each two-bid on every card behind it.
This scheme is repeated until the last row, having the shortest cards, displays the seven-bids.
In using the bidding cards, one grasps the small area of the card showing the bid to be made (e.g., the 2 hearts card 134) and all the cards behind that card, lifts them out of the bidding box, and lays them on the card table, with a large representation of the bid showing. “PASS”, “X”, “XX”, “STOP” and “ALERT” cards also are laid on the table.
When a predetermined number (usually two to five) of boards or hands have been played at a table, then the score sheet bearing the scores for each of the games is left to be picked up by the “director” of the game, or a “caddie” or other person. The score sheets then are carried to a base computer where they are input by a person, often the director, and the computer computes the scores and the standings of players in the game, and master points to be awarded.
Meanwhile, one of the pairs (usually the East-West pair) at the table where the games were just played moves to another table, playing a different pair of boards against a different set of opponents.
At the end of the session, when each team has played all or almost all of the boards, and all of the score sheets have been submitted and the scores entered in the base computer, the final standings of the players, together with any “master points” won by the players, are posted on a printout sheet which is handed out or displayed on a bulletin board or the like for the players to determine how they did.
In certain important tournaments involving top players, the progress of the play of selected teams and games is displayed on a screen or scoreboard outside of the room in which the game is being played so that spectators can follow the action.
The foregoing system has a number of disadvantages. First, the use of bidding boxes is problematic. People with large and/or shaking fingers often have trouble grasping the right bidding card, with the result that they withdraw the wrong bid card and thus must correct the error. This wastes time and causes annoyance to all of the players, and can lead to disputes.
Moreover, the bidding boxes 120 usually are relatively large and, since there are four of them, they occupy a great deal of table space—often crowding the areas needed to spread out cards which have been played.
Further, because the bidding card array 128 is so tall, it is a ready target for a hand or elbow to accidentally knock it onto the floor. This scatters the cards and requires considerable time and effort to restore.
In addition, the bidding cards become worn, broken or torn and dirty and need cleaning and replacing fairly frequently.
The scoring system described above also has drawbacks.
First, the handwriting of the person keeping score often is difficult to read, causing delays in querying the writer for clarification.
Secondly, many mistakes are made in filling out the score sheets, including the omission of the board number or the pair number, placing the scores in the wrong columns, and computing the score wrongly.
Also, the gathering of the score sheets and the inputting of the scores to the base computer are time consuming tasks, usually falling upon the shoulders of the director. Since the director often is required to settle disputes or make rulings on wrong bids or wrong plays, the director often is overtaxed and needs the assistance of further directors and/or paid “caddies” to pick up and deliver the slips.
Although the base computer is programmed to compute scores and standings quickly, due to the inputting requirements and other duties befalling the director, interim standings information seldom is available, and usually is not made available until near the end of the game, some two or three hours after its start. This leaves the players mostly in the dark as to their standings and as to the intensity of their efforts and risk-taking needed to overcome a deficit in their previous performance. That is, they do not know whether they can come from behind to win, or are far ahead, etc.
The use in some cases of so-called “travelers” provides partial but inadequate relief for the latter problem. The “traveler” is a piece of paper on which the score of the hand is written (for a second time, if separate scoring sheets are used), and which is folded up and inserted into a gap or space in the board so that it travels with the board to the next table. After play of a hand is over, the players can look at the traveler and perhaps obtain an idea of how they did when they see scores of others who have played the hand before them.
The use of travelers is of little help early in the game because of the paucity of prior results. Even later, it still does not provide much information to the players as to where they might stand among all other players. Also, the use of travelers usually adds work and extra time to the scoring duties of the players. Because of disputes the travelers may create, their use, in addition to separate score sheets, tends to slow the play of the game and involve the director in corrections of disputes regarding the travelers. Therefore, travelers often are not used at all.
Sometimes, only travelers are used for scoring, thus minimizing the time needed by the players to record the scores, as compared with games in which both score sheets and travelers are used. However, the scores recorded on the travelers cannot be input into a computer until the last round of play, when they are replaced by separate scoring sheets. This requires extra work and limits the time available to input the scores recorded on the travelers.
Of course, the latter system prevents interim standings from being computed or disseminated to the players, and the standings usually are not known until the evening's play is ended.
Another problem lies in the summoning of the director to a table to resolve a dispute.
Normally, the summoning process requires one to shout to get the attention of the person summoned. This can distract other players and disrupt the play of the game.
Another problem in bridge duplicate games and tournaments is that the players often do not move to the correct table when it is time to move from one table to the next. This is especially true when the movement pattern necessary for the game requires a “skip”—that is, it is required for the moving pair to skip one or more table in their movements. For example, moving from table 12 to table 14, and by passing table 13, the table to which the pair would move if there were no “skip.” Although directors usually announce skips frequently and prominently, still some players fail to do the skip correctly. Again, the announcements are distracting.
A further problem is in properly instructing the players as to preparatory steps they should take before play. Most of the time, the players will be required to shuffle the cards in from 2 to 5 boards, and replace the cards in the boards. Sometimes, usually for tournaments, computer-generated deals are printed on sheets, one for each board, and the players must arrange the cards in the order given on the printed sheets, and return them to the board. Then, the boards either must be passed to another table or, if the cards were shuffled by the players at the table, and in other circumstances, those players keep the boards and play them. Sometimes, one pair is then required to move to another table.
Communicating such starting instructions is haphazardous. Usually, they are given orally, either by shouting or use of a public-address system, and often are not heard correctly or at all. This requires time to cure the situation and ensure that all players know what to do.
Furthermore, printing computer-generated deals causes added expense. Also, distributing the printed sheets and retrieving them after use requires added labor cost to run a tournament.
Another problem is in providing movement schedules for players in games which require special movements. For example, whereas players in ordinary pairs duplicate games usually move from one table to the next higher-numbered table, in “Howell” movements in pairs games, or in “individual” games, the pairs or individuals are given printed schedules, prepared by an on-site computer using known software, and a printed schedule is distributed by hand to the pairs or individual players. This requires extra manual labor and expense.
In so-called “knockout” games played by teams of four or more players, scoring often is done manually, in “IMPs” (International Match Points), and this can lead to scoring errors and lack of sufficient interim standings of the teams against one another.
Similar problems exist in card games other than bridge. For example, in poker tournaments, player chip counts, bets, and sizes of pots, often are not known to the players or officials. Moreover, chip counting and handling often slow the game. Similar problems will occur in tournaments using multiple tables for playing other card games, such as “hearts”, “spades”, etc.